Kidnapped: Robert's POV
by Chocolate369
Summary: Episode 51 from Robert's POV. I've looked through the stories in Static Shock, but I haven't seen anyone try to do the episode from Robert's view, so I decided to give it a shot. Reviews and constructive criticism is welcome, but please, no flames. Enjoy.


Disclaimer- I don't own Static Shock. If I did, the show would still be playing on TV and more than the first season would be out on DVD. All the quotes, except the ones between Robert and Omnara, come from the episode.

Kidnapped: Robert's POV

I groaned a bit as I left my office with Sharon, my daughter. Today had been really long. Not that I don't like my job of course, but sometimes it can be frustrating. All the pressures that kids are dealing with nowadays. Sometimes it seems like the same kids are constantly coming to my office.

Sharon notices how tired I am after I mentioned how it had been a long day. "Daddy, you deserve a rest. I'll go get the car." I smiled.

"Thanks sweetheart." Watching her as she walks, I realize I'm proud of her. All of her work and studies at college and she still finds time to help me at the Center.

My thoughts are interrupted as one of those Bang Babies appeared right in front of me. I remember from the news that her name is Puff. "Whew. I'd been in there so long I thought you'd never come out." She then proceeds to blow some of that gas of hers onto me. I cough, suddenly feeling very dizzy. The last things I see and hear before I fall unconscious are Sharon's terrified yells and the purple bang baby usually seen with Puff, Onyx, I think his name is. But I'm unconscious before I can think anymore.

As I slowly wake up, I hear an odd noise-buzzing. What in the world is going on here? When I open my eyes I see I'm lying on a bench in the middle of a cage with lasers as bars. What was going on? I know it's not gangs wanting revenge for me converting one of their members. The technology and methods of imprisonment were beyond them. I ruled out the government and businesses, having done nothing to anger them. It's true I've gotten on the nerve of the mayor and city council several times, especially on the Big Bang issue, but not so much that they would have me kidnapped.

Another thought occurred to me, drowning out all other. Sharon! Has she been kidnapped as well, and held somewhere else. I wanted to yell out for answers, but I had a feeling that would get me nowhere.

The doors opened and woman with dark hair entered, wearing black boots, blue pants, and a red shirt with buckles and zippers on it. "You're awake." she stated, a smile on her face that I didn't like in the least.

"Why did you have me kidnapped? What do you want from me? And where's my daughter?" I was struggling to keep myself from shouting.

She laughed. "Relax, your daughter's fine. It was you that I ordered Puff and Onyx to kidnap. She nearly got killed chasing you, but I heard that Static saved her."

I calmed down slightly. My daughter was safe. Virgil was probably either with Richie or at home, safe as well. I asked again, more calmly. "What do you want with me?"

"I don't want anything from you." At my confused look, she continued. "You're a hostage. People use hostages to get what they want from others."

"And who are you using me to get to." I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer.

"Static." she said, leaving.

What in the world? Of all the people she could have mentioned, Static, the hero of Dakota, one of the few good bang babies who'd emerged from that mess, was the last person I would have thought. Why use me to get to Static?

The answer came to me a few seconds later. Static had to be Virgil, my own son. It was the only thing that made sense. I made a choice a few years back to trust Virgil despite his odd and rather flaky behavior, and not force him to tell me anything. That didn't mean I didn't still wonder about it. Now I understood. I also felt uneasy. It meant one of my kids was stuck in this mess completely, and knowing Virgil, he would come after me.

I sat on the bench with my face on my hands for what seemed like hours, until the door opened again. I glanced up briefly, seeing the woman and Static. Now that he was up close, I saw the similarities between him and Virgil, only making me more certain that my son and Static were one and the same-which I'm sure the woman knew as well.

I heard the woman warn him "No false moves, or my lasers turn him into a jigsaw puzzle."

Static adopted a deeper voice, to try to hide who he was. "Mr. Hawkins, I'm glad to see you're okay."

I sighed to myself. As much as Virgil wanted to protect his identity, I felt that this secret had gone on long enough. "You can drop the act Virgil." I told him, meeting his eyes with mine.

If I had any remaining doubts, his reaction extinguished them. "You know?" he said in his normal voice while his eyes widened. He didn't even try to deny it.

"Wasn't hard to figure out." I explained to him. "Why else kidnap me to get to Static? And maybe, maybe in the back of my mind I've always known." As soon as I'd said that, I knew it was true.

His surprised expression turned to one of guilt. "Oh Pops. I never meant to put you in danger, I swear!"

"I know that son. I don't blame you." And I didn't. "But it's quite a shock to find out your son's a superhero." He was smiling at me now.

As much as I didn't want to break the moment, I needed answers. "Who is this woman, and what does she want?"

Virgil frowned and turned to look at her. "She calls herself Omnara. Wants me to steal something."

Steal! He couldn't. That was the very thing he fought against. "What! You can't-"

"Pops, please, I gotta. There's no other way." he said with resignation in his voice.

"Virgil this is crazy." He couldn't do this.

"I know. I know." he replied. As I was about to protest again, what he said next stunned me into silence. "But if I ever get us outta this, I promise, I'll give up this superhero stuff!" I stared. Give it up. "I don't want anything like this to happen again. I mean it." I could tell he did.

I was about to say something, but Omnara cut me off, and she and Virgil left, Virgil glancing behind me as he left.

After they'd left, I was left with nothing but my thoughts. This couldn't end well for Virgil. And I still couldn't believe what Virgil had promised me. Give up his superhero career? Getting hurt and nearly killed by the meta-breed and who knew what else couldn't make him want to stop being Static, but worry for my safety could. I was rather touched by it. But my emotions changed to worry. He was likely doing something dangerous, if Omnara had felt she had to use him and not some other bang baby. That meant my son would be in harm's way. Then again, he'd been practically jumping into harm's way ever since he began his superhero career.

I could understand why he didn't tell me. I hadn't been too positive of bang babies in the beginning. I'm not sure about Sharon, but I'm sure Richie has to know. The number of times he dropped excuses and cover for Virgil. I also realized it couldn't have been easy for Richie seeing Virgil get hurt. That brought me to another thought. Could I, now that I knew his secret, allow him to go out and possibly sustain injury? I knew Virgil would quit if I ordered him to, he made that clear when we'd spoken. But I also knew that Virgil had a passion for being a superhero, if all the news I'd seen of him over the years was anything to go by. Should I let him continue, or not? I wasn't sure.

It felt like forever since Virgil had left the room, but my watch told me it had only been a couple of hours.

Was that a crash? The walls were thick, so it was hard to hear anything. But I was sure I heard something.

Ten minutes later, Virgil rushed in, his voice urgent. "Omnara's busy. If we move fast, maybe I can get you out." Before I could say anything, lightning shot from his hand and surrounded me, lifting me in the air.

"Wha..What are you doing?" I asked him.

His voice was dead serious as he shifted me into a lying down position. "Pops, hold perfectly still. Don't even breathe." He slowly started moving me between the lasers. I sucked in my gut, knowing this was going to be a tight fit, but I was going to have to trust him. "Almost there." he reassured me, sensing my anxiety.

"I definitely have to go on a diet." I said, trying to lighten the situation.

As soon as I was out of the cage, he pulled out his flying disc and ordered me to get on. As we flew through the complex, he used his powers to grab a boy in a helmet whom I recognized as Gear, his partner.

As I started wondering how Gear had gotten here and what was going on now, Omnara knocked us all to the ground and bore down on us. Virgil blasted a hole in the ceiling and flew himself, Gear, and me to street level. Once there, I took a closer look at Gear and a thought occurred to me. "Is that…Richie?" I was sure.

He pretty much confirmed it when he tried to do what Virgil did initially. "Uhh, hmm, hmm, Mr. Hawkins, you have to understand, the most secret part of a superhero is his, secret identity, and well, uhh."

Virgil put a stop to it by confirming my suspicions. He seemed to decide that there was no point in hiding anything from me anymore. "Yeah, it's Richie."

I smiled. Richie, after getting over his surprise, smiled back and said in his normal voice "Hi, Mr. H."

Just then, Omnara chose to reappear. After declaring her intentions to destroy ALVA Industries and launched the missiles, Virgil turned to me. "Pops, remember that promise I made you?"

As much as I hated to send him into danger, lives would be lost if he didn't help now. And maybe he could make up for the crimes he had to commit for me. "Go do what you have to. Superhero."

He smiled. "Thanks." Then turning to Richie, "Come on." As I watched, he and Richie took to the air.

I kept my eye on them, watching in awe as they stopped each missile. But as they were knocked to the ground, I ran to make sure they were okay. Just because they were superheroes didn't mean I stopped worrying.

As I arrived, I saw a school bus nearly run Virgil down. Putting my years in football to good use, I tackled him out of the way. What he said next surprised me. "Thanks Pops. You know, you'd make a pretty good superhero yourself." I'll admit I felt flattered, but I didn't have much time to think about it. The bus was coming back for another round.

I grabbed his wrist. "This way." I ordered him, leading him behind a wood fence. As I hoped, the bus crashed through the fence and crashed into hole in front of us, getting wrecked in the process. "That's the first time I ever had a bus try and catch me." Virgil looked proud of the wisecrack and probably would've agreed with me, but we were interrupted by Richie.

"Sorry I'm late. I had a wrestling match with a garbage truck." He pointed to himself proudly. "I won."

Omnara interrupted and would have killed us with the vehicles. I was scared, not for myself, but for my son and his friend. They didn't deserve to die like this. Suddenly her whole body seemed to malfunction. Richie smiled. "Sounds like my counter virus finally kicked in."

Omnara slowly fell to the ground. Virgil ordered me to stay where I was and went to check on her. Richie rocketed off in another direction. When they returned, Omnara was being carted into an ambulance, speaking incoherently. Richie told me and Virgil that he'd explained to the police that Static had stolen because of a hostage situation. While they went to take a look at Omnara, I held back, not wanting to raise any suspicions, but also to give myself time to think.

I heard Richie, as Omnara was loaded into the ambulance "Her mind is totally overloaded."

Virgil sounded a bit angry when he spoke. "Well, I guess she won't be communicating my secret identity to anyone. Ever."

"She won't." Richie replied. "But will anybody else?"

Both walked back to face me. Here it was. My decision. "I don't know boys. I just don't know. I mean, the idea of you two going out and facing danger every day," I stopped.

Virgil protested, "But Pops, we've been doing it a long time now."

"Yeah, and we're pretty good at it." Richie added.

They were. I couldn't deny that. "Yes, but I didn't know about it before. Now that I do," I turned away.

Richie sounded nervous. "It sounds like you don't want us to be superheroes anymore."

"I guess I don't." Turning and looking at their downcast expressions, though, I realized I had to let them continue. They'd done well with their powers, and I couldn't take them away from something they clearly loved and that the city needed. "But you were given these powers." Their raised their heads to look at me excitedly. That gave me the strength to say the next words. "And you'll have to decide for yourselves how to use them. For me to stop you just wouldn't be right."

Virgil raced up and grabbed my arm. "Pops, you're the greatest!"

Richie agreed. "The greatest squared, exponentially!"

"Of course you're going to have to tell Sharon." I told them.

Both of them looked scared at that. Richie gasped and Virgil exclaimed "What!"

At home, I gathered everyone together in the living room. But before any conversation could begin, Sharon exploded. "I don't believe it! The insurance company's giving me a hard time, because they said I'm not covered for Bang Baby incidents. What do I have to do, get Bang Baby insurance? I've had it up to here with Bang Babies. If I hear any more about Bang Babies, I'm gonna explode!"

We all stared and she seemed to calm down. "What's wrong? Was there something you wanna tell me?"

I made a split second decision. One day, she'd have to be told, but not now. "Nothing honey. Nothing at all." I had to resist the urge to laugh as Virgil and Richie both leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief.

I let them enjoy it. I would have them tell Sharon eventually. I also wanted to talk with Virgil and maybe Richie about everything sometime soon.

I plan on writing a sequel to this pretty quick. It will be Power Outage from Robert's POV, and will probably be shorter than this one. I also plan on doing one where Robert talks to Virgil and maybe Richie. Maybe I'll have Virgil and Richie tell Sharon and Richie's parents the truth. Those are all in my head.


End file.
